


The Hunger Never Ends

by mkaro (mkaroliina)



Series: In The Deepest Of My Heart [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha Lance (Voltron), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Beta Hunk (Voltron), Beta Pidge | Katie Holt, Galaxy Garrison, Lance (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance (Voltron) is a Dork, Lance briefly thinks Keith and Shiro are a thing, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Omega Keith (Voltron), Omega Verse, Pining Lance (Voltron), True Mates, broganes, but absolutely NOT, flirty keith, honestly I don’t think you understand the level of oblivious we’re talking about, it's... a lot, kind of, lance is just being a jealous baby, like REALLY PINING Lance, oh man this is so fucking self indulgent, the only dynamic between them you'll ever catch these hands write, they're 16 and shiro is like 25 ew gross, unrequited crush... or is it?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-23 22:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14342265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mkaroliina/pseuds/mkaro
Summary: Lance prides himself in being a decent alpha. That’s why he’s made up this rule for himself: do not under any circumstance use your alpha command voice on anyone.He knows that every alpha has a period after presenting where they have a hard time controlling their alpha voice, and sure, Lance has slipped up a few times, but mostly the commands haven’t been powerful enough to actually put an omega under his spell, so he doesn’t count those. But there have been three certain occasions where he just lost complete control of himself (or simply ignored the rule), and they have all involved Keith fucking Kogane.ORThe two times Lance accidentally forced Keith into heat, and one time he got hit in the face.





	1. Alpha Command

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back with the promised sophomore galaxy garrison au. So this will be written in three parts, and then I'll probably post another fic of three parts but from Keith's perspective. Like I love making Keith suffer as much as anyone but damn even I have limits and I need y’all to know that I love Keith.
> 
> I just want to point out that Lance is an unreliable narrator af (the dude’s as oblivious as they get) and I am fully aware that this is worse (better???) than a fucking soap opera with the way Keith and Lance fight and make up and fight and make up, but what else can I say other than I’m always a slut for drama.  
> ALSO a small reminder that this is a garrison centric fic and that Pidge uses he/him pronouns during this time so you don’t get confused. and you should also know she’s only in this fic bc I fucked up the timeline and had already written her scenes and was like meh let’s just leave her here lmao 
> 
> ALSO ALSO the fic that even made me want to write down my own abo headcanons is still the 'every drop of blood I bleed' series by cumslutkeith (so definitely go read that one if this floats your boat) and I’m only writing this for purely self-indulgent reasons and thought I could might as well share my own headcanons to the masses so I mean there’s no need to criticize my writing. I'm literally only here for a good time, not a long time.

Lance prides himself in being a decent alpha. An alpha who doesn’t belittle or degrade omegas (or any other sex or gender for that matter), someone who wouldn’t mind a demanding omega, or a submissive one if that is what they prefer. He would never want to be an alpha who push their partner into a limited stereotype, unless they want to be of course, because having these stereotypical traits doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re bad if they’re happy with it. He genuinely just wants people to be themselves and enjoy it with them. That’s why he, as an alpha, has made up this one rule to always go by, a principle of sorts: do not under any circumstance use your alpha command voice on anyone.

He knows that every alpha has a period after presenting where they have a hard time controlling their alpha voice, and sure, Lance has slipped up a few times but mostly the commands haven’t been powerful enough to actually put an omega under his spell, so he doesn’t count those. But there have been three certain occasions where he just lost complete control of himself (or simply ignored the rule), and they have all involved Keith fucking Kogane.

Keith and Lance did not get along. Anyone could tell you that. Ever since they met for the first time at the information meeting before starting their first year at the Garrison—Lance, a freshly presented alpha, and Keith, who either wore blockers to suppress his scent or simply hadn’t presented yet—Lance had gained a weird obsession with him. Everything turned out to be a competition between them, and fine, Lance can admit this dynamic was mostly his fault, but it’s not like Keith didn’t raise easily to the bait. So yeah, they were rivals or something, not exactly what Lance wanted but he’ll take what he gets.

If you wanted to know Lance’s inner, most guarded fantasies however, then you’d know that most of all Lance would have wanted to be one of those alphas who leave Keith small gifts outside the door of his dorm, or bring him his food in the cafeteria, or offers to carry his books to class. Obviously Keith looks at them with mild disgust and only waste enough words on them to politely but coldly ask them to move out of his way, but Lance can’t help feeling for those alphas, only following their instincts to court the gorgeous omega. But this is also why he’s refrained from doing anything remotely court-like towards Keith. Sure, he’s jealous of whoever’s stupid enough to try to pull out his chair for him in class and Keith actually letting them, but he knows that is not what Keith is looking for. And even if they’re fighting all the time, him and Keith have actually built somewhat of a dysfunctional friendship through the years, which is more of a relationship than what any other alpha has been able to accomplish—well, except Shiro, but Lance is actually not sure what Shiro is to Keith. He used to be super jealous of their relationship, but the more Lance got to know Keith the more he noticed that it wasn’t the usual alpha/omega courtship vibes that came of them. It was more of a platonic familial vibe. Which reassured his inner alpha more than it should. He was afraid that he’d have to challenge Shiro sometime in the future, and he did _not_ look forward to that.

Anyway, this is the story of how Lance started to completely lose control of his alpha voice—and while Lance would gladly put the whole blame on the omega, the first mistake was actually his and he only has his own stupid alpha-self to blame.

 

.

 

Lance had missed the first two days of classes before he got back to the Garrison from summer break. But what can you do when your flight gets cancelled? He tried feeling at least a little bit anxious about missing so much information at the start of his sophomore year, but he could only feel content with the extra day back home with his family before coming back here.

He was on his way back from the teachers’ lounge after speaking to most of his teachers about catching up and was now walking down the dorm corridors. He was just wondering if Hunk had bought any snacks for them to eat tonight yet or if he should go to the cafeteria himself when he saw something in the corner of his eye. He stopped abruptly right in front of a door, looking down on a stack of gifts and baskets.

What the fuck? Why were there baskets of candy and food laying around the corridor? Lance pondered this for a while, looking around to see if someone was pranking him. Then he couldn’t help entertaining the possibility of some divine entity hearing his train of thought and then went like ‘ya this idiot should get some snacks so he doesn’t have to go all the way back to the cafeteria and buy some’, but Lance quickly scrapped that idea away. But the question still remained, why is there food in the corridor? Aren’t there, like, rules and regulations for this kind of thing? Lance scratched the back of his neck, still kind of contemplating stealing a basket of cookies, when the door suddenly opened and a figure appeared, only a foot away from his face.

The person himself wasn’t the first thing noticed by Lance though, no. He was completely floored by the totally _awesome_ scent pouring out from the room, he’s pretty sure his jaw dropped. He’s never felt anything like it before—or, wait, no cross that out. Lance has totally felt that before. It was a scent that gave him the exact same feeling as when he finally arrived and stepped his foot in the hall of his house back in Cuba, and when his mama pulled him into his arms with the laughter of his siblings in the background. The smell reminded him of home so much he could actually feel it hurt in his chest from homesickness, even though he only left his family the day before. Except now Lance didn’t want his _mother’s_ arms to pull him in, he wanted this person to take him and press in close and he wanted to nestle his nose into their neck and _breathe_ and—

“What the fuck are you doing outside my door, Lance?” the person by the doorframe said, and his familiar voice totally just shattered the whole image Lance built in his mind about jumping this stranger. What the fuck?

“ _Keith_ ,” Lance wheezed, feeling the blush spreading across his face. Again, what the fuck? Why was Keith smelling better than any omega he’s ever met in his entire life? Also _why was he smelling like an omega?_ Yes, that was the million-dollar question.

“Great, you still remember my name. Good job, Lance. Now why are you here?” Lance could see the tension in Keith’s jaw as the words left his mouth, and great, now he can’t stop staring at his mouth. He kind of wished Keith would stop saying his name, because the visuals of those plump lips bending to pronounce it did stuff to him that he definitely does not want to think about.

“Uh, what? No, I was just passing—I wasn’t, heh, you know—I’m just walking like a normal person, just in the, uh, corridor like a regular… person— so what are _you_ doing here?” Lance rambles awkwardly, unable to move anything except his mouth apparently.

A small quirk to Keith’s lips is the only indication he gets before the omega’s entire scent shifts from vaguely guarded to something more like amusement. Lance is currently too occupied with fighting the sudden urge to kiss the omega to wonder about why Lance has such a hard time distinguishing Keith’s pheromones.

“I live here. This is my dorm, Lance,” Keith says in a huff and leans against his doorframe, and Jesus _Christ,_ Lance really needs him to stop saying his name all the time. The alpha immediately gulps and sees how Keith follows the motion of his Adam’s apple with his gaze. Which only makes him gulp again. That’s when the omega does the treacherous thing of _giggling,_ and Lance feels like he’s dying. He’s never seen Keith act this _coy_ before, especially not towards _him_. Lance can’t look away from the smiling omega, so Keith is the one that breaks the intense eye contact by shyly looking down. Then Lance is whiplashed by the change of pheromones in the air when the omega’s scent goes from soft amusement to spiked annoyance in a second.

“Are you the one who’s been leaving these outside my door?” Keith says, all the playfulness gone from his voice. Lance glances down at the offending baskets by the omega’s feet and is suddenly filled with the need to calm the omega down and reassure him that there’s no need to be distressed.

“ _No_! No, I just got back to campus like this morning! I’ve been with my family in Cuba the whole summer break and played with my sibling that I haven’t seen in _forever_ , and I’ve swam in the ocean because the water is fucking turquoise back there, I swear to God, and no, I didn’t bring you anything—here, smell!” And this is where Lance makes the biggest mistake of his whole life, just because he’s a stupid alpha who wanted to appease a distressed omega. “They don’t even smell like me!” he says and, like an idiot, puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder only to pull him in close and shove his neck out for him to smell.

This would have all been fine and dandy if Keith had just sniffed him a little and confirmed that the gifts indeed were not Lance’s doing. But that was not at all what happened. Instead Lance could practically _feel_ the whimper having its course through Keith’s entire body before it came out in a soft huff of air just below Lance’s ear. Then it’s apparently open season for everything Lance because Keith fucking shoves his nose into Lance’s scent gland and—I shit you not— _licks_ his way from there all the way across Lance’s jaw.

Then the potent scent of omega in heat hits him like a brick wall. Lance can’t help the instinct to bring his arms around the pliant omega and pull him closer as he takes another big breath to inhale the sweet scent, but there’s a voice of reason in the back of Lance’s muddled mind, which sounds a lot like Hunk, telling him that if he doesn’t do anything like right about fucking now, this situation is going to spiral out of control.

“ _Lance_ ,” Keith moans right then and Lance has never, _ever_ , heard his name sound like that before.

“ _Shit, fuck_ , okay—geez, Keith you really need to get off me, like, _right now_ ,” Lance wheezes, and starts to breathe solely through his mouth as he tries to squirm out of the omegas grip, but Keith only gasps as Lance puts his hands on him and then the omega literally _molds_ himself against Lance’s body and _how_ is this even happening to Lance right now? “No, no no no, Keith, fuck, you need to get up,” Lance breathes and pushes Keith away from him, but the omega’s arms keep their grip around his neck, and suddenly Lance feels Keith’s lips press into the crease of his mouth, just barely missing its target by like a hairline and Lance starts to panic for real. “Nope, no, we are not doing this _—get the fuck off me right now_ , _Keith.”_

And Keith gets right the fuck off him. The omega steps away so abruptly Lance almost takes a step forward to follow him but immediately straightens his back and pushes away further. Then he watches as Keith bares his entire neck for him in the universal gesture of submission, but his gaze is completely clouded over.

“Oh shit,” Lance gasps. “ _Oh shit, oh fuck, oh no,_ I totally just alpha commanded you right now, didn’t I?” He feels the panic wash over himself as he imagines his mama’s disappointed look when she finds out. Then he feels another wave of panic as he takes in the full image off Keith _the omega_ right now; completely docile, trembling slightly as he’s baring his neck like a good little omega, whimpering softly as if he’s trying to lure Lance closer to comfort him. And Lance is _this fucking close_ to giving in and doing exactly what his instincts are urging him to do—but he _can’t_ do this to Keith. He won’t be that alpha. So he does the only thing he can think of that a decent alpha would do in this situation and pulls his shirt up over his nose, continues to breathe only through his mouth and pulls the omega back into his dorm. Lance works as fast as he possibly can, putting Keith onto his bed and the omega lets out a purely pornographic moan that Lance completely elects to ignore by looking away. Then he realizes that Keith was probably in preheat, already gearing up for the upcoming days with water bottles, food and this huge ass nest in the middle of his bed. Keith was probably minding his own preheat business when Lance’s alpha scent seeped through the door and bothered him. Oh my god, Lance is truly the worst.

Lance hurries out of the nest but Keith refuses to let go of his hoodie. He knows it’s incredibly taboo for an alpha to get into an omega’s nest without their explicit invitation, but he figures this situation calls for a bit of an exception, so he puts a knee down on the bed and tries to wrestle his way out of Keith’s grip while continuously chanting a string of his finest swearwords in his mind because Keith won’t stop making those fucking porn star noises. Christ, Lance is just an exceptionally dumb alpha and he honest to God doesn’t know how long he can keep up the fight with the strain in his pants.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he gasps at last and wriggles out of his hoodie completely, just leaving it there with Keith in the nest. He only gives himself a quick few seconds to figure out what to do next. Should he get a teacher? His eyes travel across Keith’s dorm—huh, he gets to live alone?—and then they stop on a piece of paper on Keith’s desk. OMEGA COUNSELOR, is the only thing he sees before picking it up and fucking bolting out of the room. With only a few inches left of the closing door, Lance hears Keith’s confused and miserable whimper and a broken “ _alpha_ ” that hits him right in his heart. Then the door closes shut and Lance is alone back in the hall.

The doors are supposed to be soundproof for this exact reason that omegas spend their heats in them, but Lance swears he can hear when Keith stumbles out of bed, screaming for him to come back—for his _alpha_ to come back. Then he can _actually_ feel Keith pawing at the door handle. Lance’s entire body tenses as he leans on the door and sinks down on the floor to block the omega from getting out, and that’s when he remembers the wrinkly paper in his hand. He glances down at the text on it and sees it’s the number to the Garrison Omega counselor. His hands immediately pat down his pant pockets until they fish up his phone, and then he’s got it pressed to the ear and a female voice greets him.

“Uh, hi. I’m Lance, uh, McClain? Alpha student here at the Garrison, and I’m pretty sure Keith Kogane just went into his heat, but it’s really bad and I think maybe someone should like check that out and make sure he’s alright—“ There’s another paw at the handle, and also a pound at the door right behind Lances back. “Yeah, you should definitely send someone to his dorm like right about fucking now—oh shit, sorry about the language—and also,” Lance huffs out, wiping away sweat from his forehead, “I think I might be starting my rut like right exactly in this moment?”

The time between that and finally hearing the rushed footsteps down the corridor is a bit foggy since the only thing Lance had been focusing on the entire time was to not get up from the floor and throw open that door to completely devour his omega who is _wailing_ for him on the other side. Then he’s being ushered away by the infirmary personnel to an isolation room where he could have his rut. They were the most awful couple of days that he’s ever had the pleasantry of experiencing. His whole being was aching for his omega that he knew was in heat, aching for him too. The more rational part of Lance’s sex crazed brain told him that Keith would be so fucking pissed at him after this, that he should feel ashamed of himself for kick-starting his heat and being a general asshole of an alpha. 

It took four days and then he was released into the open. The Omega Counselor lady had a talk with him before he left about not getting too close to omegas in preheat, and about knowing his limits. He’d nodded, only half listening since he already knew all of this, but then she had put a hand on his shoulder and smiled proudly at him.

“You did good, Lance,” she’d said and shook his shoulder lightly. Lance only frowned as a response. “You didn’t lose control of yourself and you got Mr. Kogane into the safety of his dorm without any harm to either of you, and then you called for help. That is much more than what I would have expected from any student. You’re a good alpha.”

A few minutes later Lance was leaving the infirmary with a new outfit that they had picked up from Hunk by his dorm and made him change into, and a sense of undignified pride.

 

.

 

“Lance! Hey, buddy, how are you feeling?” Hunk exclaimed as soon as Lance came through the door to their shared dormitory. He had been informed about Lance’s sudden rut, so he wasn’t that worried about his friend’s delayed arrival. Lance smiled faintly at Hunk before falling into his own bed with a groan.

“Fuck my entire life, Hunk,” he answered. Hunk immediately squared up on his bed, looking over at his best friend.

“What, why?” he asked in confusion, before something seemed to click in his mind. “Oh, does this have anything to do with a certain mulleted, newly presented omega that you can’t stop talking about?”

Lance only groaned again, too tired to even deny Hunk’s accusation.

“Oh man, I heard they had to _drag_ him into an isolation room. Some beta swears she heard him cry out for his alpha—Keith doesn’t even have an alpha?” Hunk continued, now sounding even more confused.

Lance lifted his head to glare at him.

Hunk glared back until both his eyebrows shoot up over his forehead like rockets. “Shut up! _You_ are the alpha?” Hunk exclaimed.

Lance scrambled to sit up in his bed, pointing at his best friend. “No! No, I did not say that, Hunk!” Hunk was his best friend, but he was too much of a gossip to ever be able to keep that kind of thing inside the confinements of their dormitory. “Seriously Hunk, I am _not_ Keith’s alpha, okay?” he stressed so it really would sink into Hunk’s head. Lance could not afford that kind of rumors to spread and ruin even the smallest of chances that Lance still had with Keith. “I just happened to kick start Keith’s heat, and then his heat kick started my rut.”

“Holy shit, Lance. I heard he went completely ballistic screaming for his alpha, refusing to leave his nest without the alpha’s shirt or something?”

“A hoodie,” Lance mumbled into his pillow that he pressed into his chest.

” _Your_ hoodie!” Hunk howled. ”Oh man, this is golden, Lance.”

“No, Hunk! This is not golden,” he snapped and looks sharply at his friend. ”I think I’m in fucking love with Keith, and now he hates me. He probably won’t ever speak to me again.”

“Well, as thrilled as I am that you’re not denying it anymore, I really don’t think this is going to be the thing you do that makes Keith hate you, so don’t worry about it, buddy,” Hunk assured the alpha that was pouring out enough distress pheromones in the room that even he, a beta, could feel it. Lance just groaned and fell back in the mattress, wallowing in shame and self-pity.

“I didn’t even know he was an omega,” he settles on finally. Because that is still the question Lance keeps pondering about the most. When the fuck did Keith present? Has he always known he was an omega? Well, duh, of course he’s always known, male omegas always do. But then why didn’t he tell Lance? They’re friends, right? That’s definitely something you tell your alpha friend just as a heads up for when you knock into each other in the doorway and you suddenly smell exactly like the love-filled cookies their mother bakes on every Christmas morning ever since they were a little cub; delicious and just like home. But then again, what would Lance have done if he’d known? Tried to court Keith? Yeah, he wishes. Keith has always been unfairly pretty, mysterious and good at everything he does, and also incredibly out of Lance’s league. Still Lance has always tried showing off in front of him, displaying his alphaness, maybe flirted a little, even though not knowing about Keith’s secondary sex. But no, he probably wouldn’t have tried to court him anyway. Their friendship was always a tad too much antagonistic for Keith to have let that slide and not taken it as some kind of cruel joke.

“He presented in, like, June or something,” Hunk answers. “Right in the middle of the cafeteria, dude”

“Oh,” Lance manages, imagining what that situation looked like.

“Yeah, all the alphas have been going crazy with courting gifts and stuff. I think Evan—you know, alpha, senior year—I think he had to move to a dormitory on the other side of campus because he was bothering Keith so much.”

Lance had to close his eyes and control his breathing after hearing that, as some kind of rage-filled adrenaline was pumping through his veins. He had to remind himself that Keith was strong and could definitely handle himself—also Lance would not win a fight against an alpha like Evan. At least now he knew why the gifts annoyed Keith so much.

“I can kind of get why he’s been isolating himself in his dorm,” Hunk mumbled later, as if in afterthought. Lance silently agreed.

 

.

 

After a few days Keith starts going to class again. Lance’s is the first head to turn when the door opens and Keith walks in only a minute before class is supposed to start, though the teacher isn’t even here yet. Lance can’t help a small gasp that escapes his lips as he completely forgets about the conversation he was having with the others by his table in favor of focusing on Keith. He hasn’t seen him for a week, not since… The thing happened. The dread he thought he would feel as he laid his eyes on the stone faced omega is surprisingly absent, Lance only finds himself observing Keith, making sure he looks healthy. Which he does, kind of. He still looks just as pretty and strong as always, except for the bags under his eyes, but those are understandable considering the dude just got out of his heat. You don’t get much sleep during those… at least if they’re anything like ruts, Lance supposes.

For a slight second, Lance almost feels as if everything’s going to work out just fine. Lance can smell his own scent on him—and is delighted by the fact that Keith probably brought his hoodie into his heat— and then Keith looks his way and their eyes lock with each other. Lance is suddenly filled with courage, feeling as if he should go up and talk to the omega. That courage gets knocked right out of him though when another alpha taps Keith’s shoulder and leans in close, way too close for Lance’s comfort, and whispers in Keith’s ear.

It’s like a train wreck; Lance can’t look away from it happening. He can’t move either, he feels glued to his chair, forever doomed to watch other alphas flirt with his omega. Still, Keith never looks away from Lance, even as he answers the other alpha. That’s when Lance finally manages to break the spell and focus on the teacher walking into the room.

Lance tries his damn hardest to not let his eyes drift over to Keith during the rest of class. It’s hard, because he can feel the omegas eyes on him all the time. Even as the lecture ends and everyone is packing up their shit to go, Lance can feel the telltale heat on his neck that he is being watched. He turns and, sure, there Keith is with his eyes on him. But then, like a fucking swarm of bees flocked to honey, two other alphas crowd around Keith and starts talking to him. Lance clenches his fists and turns around.

Fine. This is all fine.

And it would have stayed fine, if Keith hadn’t kept showing up smelling like a subtle mixture of both their scents for days and stare at him every God damn time an alpha comes up to him. Every day Lance has first row tickets to the “Let’s All Flirt with Keith Show”. Eventually, Lance started to stare back, but it was impossible to decipher what Keith meant by it all. Was he looking to see if Lance was jealous? Because, duh, yeah? Of course he’s jealous. Every single alpha on campus gets jealous when someone hits on Keith. Though Lance is not above admitting that his jealousy has been turning rather dark and ugly lately, and he’s definitely thought of breaking a few noses whenever Keith gets bothered when he’s trying to eat. What’s the matter with all these worthless alphas? Stop stressing him! It’s not healthy!

Sometimes Lance finds himself seething, his fork crushed in a death grip as he’s got his eyes zoomed in on the omega across the cafeteria, surrounded by alphas that Lance knows aren’t Keith’s friends.

“Dude,” Hunk says in a pressed tone, waving his hand in front of Lance’s face.

“What?” Lance says and turns to him, his palm dropping his fork on the table as he relaxes. They both watch it bounce to the floor. Lance sheepishly looks up back at Hunk.

“You need to stop with the staring,” Pidge comments. “It’s creepy.”

Lance visibly flails at that. “I’m not creepy! Have you guys not seen how much _he_ stares at _me_? Huh?” He leans down quickly to grab his fork, simultaneously glancing over to Keith’s table and just about catches the omega looking away from him. He straightens out and gestures towards Keith. “ _See_!”

Pidge gives him an unimpressed look. ”Okay then, so you’re _both_ creepy.”

Hunk sighs. “Lance, we’re just concerned, okay? Do you know how much time you spend staring at him instead of just going to talk with him?”

“Yeah, dude, just get it over with. Like a Band-Aid,” Pidge says totally unhelpful, shewing on his sandwich.

“I can’t do that! It’s exactly what he wants!” Lance stresses and both Pidge and Hunk looks at him as if he’s said something exceptionally stupid.

“Aw, come on, don’t give me that look. I’ve figured out what he wants, okay? I know what his little evil omega plan is,” Lance says, peering over at Keith. Pidge snorts.

“Okay, Lance, I’ll humor you. What is Keith’s _little evil omega plan_?”

“He’s trying to get me to court him to prove that I’m a bad alpha,” he whispers and leans in across the table. Pidge stares at him as if expecting him to continue, Hunk stares at him in utter disbelief. When he doesn’t say anything else Pidge bursts out laughing.

“Oh my god,” he howls. “You really are the dumbest idiot I’ve ever come across!” Lance frowns.

“Hey, I resent that!” he says and points at Pidge accusingly. “And my theory totally makes sense. He’s been staring at me every time anyone brings him gifts or tries to carry his books to class or his food tray to his table. And he’s rejected every single suitor, _and_ I happen to know that he hates receiving courting gifts! I just know he’s trying to bait me into doing something stupid so he can mock me.” Lance retreats to peering over at Keith’s table again, watching the omega ignore the alpha next to him as he offers him a piece of an apple.

Pidge just let’s out the longest wheeze in history. Hunk pats him gently on his back but doesn’t move his concerned look from Lance.

“Just… let him be,” Hunk says to Pidge.

“But _Hunk_! This is like a whole new level of oblivious!”

“I know, but just… let him be.”

Lance pretends to not listen, but he’ll prove them wrong. He knows what Keith is up to and he will not fall for the sneaky omega’s cheap tricks.

 

.

 

A couple of weeks pass with Lance trying to keep away from the omega, refusing to get involved in whatever game he’s planned. But where ever he turns—or hides, let’s be real—Keith’s always there, looking particularly good. For a while Lance is _convinced_ Keith is stalking him or something just to taunt him with his inquiring glances and exposed neck and rejection of all the alphas following him. When they cross paths in the hallways the omega also tends to inch closer and brush their hands together, just a graze really, but it’s enough to get Lance’s heart spiraling. The omega is really playing it dirty, but Lance is set on not becoming one of the other alphas he rejects so viciously, so he keeps his head held high and just tries to ignore Keith as much as possible. Sure, they still throw insults at each other in flight practice and their banter haven’t trickled away in class either. Only now it feels as if every jab and word traded between them is loaded with something else that Lance can’t figure out. It also really doesn’t help that Keith is teasing him constantly by saying his name in that soft voice, as if Lance will ever be able to forget the way the omega enchanted him with just a ‘ _Lance’_ that night all those weeks ago.

That’s not the only thing still stuck in his mind though, no. Lance remembers the whole thing. _Every. Single. Detail._ The fact that Lance is almost completely certain Keith keeps scenting himself with Lance’s hoodie doesn’t help at all _._ And it’s haunting him so badly he’s seriously considering talking to the nice Omega counselor lady so she can get Keith to back the fuck off, because the omega is _doing something_ to him. He feels ruined. Like he will never be able to see another person the way he sees Keith. And that just does not sit well with Lance, especially since the omega hates his guts. Because what kind of alpha fucking forces an omega into heat? Bad alphas do. Only the bad ones. Lance is trying hard though to be a good alpha. To show Keith that what the omega thinks of him isn’t _him_. The only way he can think of showing this is by staying away and giving the omega his space, trying to find solace in other omegas and betas, and that will just have to be enough for now. It has to be enough.

Sebastian was an omega who attached himself to Lance’s side for a while. He was fierce and daring and gorgeous, but he was also a very much a distraction so Lance wouldn’t stare at Keith all the time. To Lance’s defense, he is very aware of how douchey that just sounded, but it wasn’t actually Lance who started it all. One day Sebastian just sat down next to him at lunch and took his hand. Lance was righteously surprised and froze right on the spot. It’s not every day a pretty omega takes your hand.

He kind of hung out with Lance and his friends after that. Some of his friends joined them sometimes but it was clear Sebastian wasn’t there for them all to be buddies, so to say. Which was flattering for Lance at least, but he didn’t go any further than flirting. He felt bad about leading him on but he thought he was pretty clear about having a limit. Sebastian still walked with him in the halls (an effective way to block Keith and his grabby fingers), played with his hair at lunch and waited for him at his locker after class though, but it didn’t last for long.

“Got yourself a boyfriend, Lance?” the starring voice of at least 75% of Lance’s dreams said from behind him. A shiver went down his spine as he glanced over his shoulder and saw Keith standing there, arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his pink lips. Lance turned back to pull out his physics book from his locker.

“Uh, what?” he says, _very_ charismatically. Keith stepped over to his side and leaned against the locker next to Lance’s. Lance cleared his throat but kept his eyes in his locker, fumbling around for anything so he wouldn’t have to face Keith.

“I said: where is your boyfriend? Doesn’t he always wait for you here every day?” Keith never stops staring at Lance, and the omega’s scent doesn’t reveal _anything_ —which freaks him out a little, he’s not gonna lie. But then Keith’s words sink in and he quickly turns his head to him.

“What? _Sebastian_?”

”Sebastian,” Keith echoes, tapping a finger against Lances arm. It’s almost embarrassing how fast Lance flexes his bicep. He turns back to glare at his locker.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” he mutters.

“No?” Keith sounds all innocent, but Lance knows he’s up to something.

“He’s a friend.”

“A friend.”

Lance scowls at the omega. Keith smirks.

“Why are you repeating everything I say?”

“I’m just making sure,” he says and his eyes flicker down to the ground.

“Of what?” Lance asks, turning towards the omega fully. Keith shuffles a bit on the spot, looking up and beyond Lance.

“Is that your family?” He points at something behind Lance’s shoulder, and Lance knows even before he turns to look that it’s a picture of his entire family on the beach from this summer. He put the picture up in his locker a few weeks ago.

“Yeah. My mama and my siblings.”

“Do you live by the beach?” Keith leans forward to see the picture better and Lance bounces out of the way immediately. You know, just so he wouldn’t block Keith from seeing the photo, _not_ because the omega’s face suddenly appeared in a close proximity to his own.

“Uh, yeah. In Varadero, but my dad lives here in the U.S,” Lance says and his voice is a little higher than usual. Keith smiles, a real smile this time, not a smirk.

“Your mom is beautiful.” Lance can feel the heat in his face before Keith even finishes the sentence. Lance knows his mother is the most beautiful person on earth, but it always makes him happy when someone else acknowledges it.

“She is,” he says and looks over at the picture too. It’s shot by Lance so he’s not in it, but it has his mama smiling brightly right in the middle, his baby sister Veronica in her arms, his little brother Luis making an ugly face right next to them and his older brother Marco poking him in the cheek. It’s a good photo.

“You know, you smell like the ocean,” Keith says suddenly and when Lance whip his head around to stare at him he’s a lot closer than he was before. Lance gulps loudly. _God_ , Keith is going to be the death of him. You can’t just say out loud what people _smell_ like—that’s, like, _so_ intimate.

“You smell like my mama’s cookies,” Lance answers instead of following his own advice, because he’s an idiot obviously. Although he can’t really say he regrets it when he sees the blush spread so prettily over Keith’s fair skin.

“ _Oh_ ,” the omega squeaks. Lance doesn’t know if he’s the only one who feels the weird atmosphere right now, but it’s definitely there.

“Yeah, _oh_ —“

“Hey, baby.” Two arms snake their way around his chest, and the smell of territorial omega intrudes his and Keith’s comfortable bubble. Lance twists his head and sees Sebastian looking at him softly. Uh, this is new.

Keith stares at the other omega, like a deer caught in headlights.

“So, what are you two talking about?” Sebastian asks and leans his head down on Lance’s shoulder. Keith takes a step away from them, and Lance realizes how incredibly close they were standing. Lance furrows his eyebrows but opens his mouth to answer.

“Uh, just my fa—“

“He just let me take a look at his physics notes,” Keith says and takes another step back, crossing his arms. Lance frowns at the lie.

“Really? You’re too kind, Lance,” Sebastian croons and squeezes his arms around Lance. “And smart, too.” Lance doesn’t really understand what’s going on, and then Sebastian’s lips are on his like he’s got some kind of teleportation super power.

Look, Lance really doesn’t mind kissing pretty omegas. If they’re willing and Lance is into it, then sure. And Lance likes Sebastian. He’s pretty cool when you get to know him, but… compared to the moment Lance just had with Keith, the kiss pales to nothing. So when Sebastian breaks the kiss to take a breath, Lance doesn’t wait a second to look at Keith. Only Keith’s not there anymore. Lance practically shoves the omega away from him so he can follow the retreating back of Keith’s uniform, but stops in the middle of an ocean of students when the omega disappears in the crowd.


	2. Face Punch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back again with the drama and the angst and the fluff and the ridiculousness that is klance. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy thinking it (and then forcing myself to write it down s i g h)!!

Sebastian stopped eating at their table after that. Some other people have taken the seats he and his friends used to house and they constantly try to get Lance’s attention but he’s not in the mood. He hasn’t been for a couple of days, not since the locker-incident. Lance doesn’t know why it bothers him so much. It’s not like Keith cares about who he kisses or not, but the omega has stopped brushing against Lance in the hallways and he hasn’t looked up at Lance in ages to rub it in how easy he can reject an alpha. In fact, Keith’s been even more touchy-feely with his suitors than ever before.

Lance groans softly and glances over at Keith’s table. He’s sitting next to an omega girl who Lance has seen together with Keith a lot lately—he feels some kind of pride and satisfaction over the possibility of Keith making friends, which is totally not at all creepy or weird—and on Keith’s other side there’s a senior alpha. Way more ripped than Lance, that’s for sure. Keith is turned towards him, a finger on the alpha’s arm—just the same way he poked Lance’s arm at his locker, his mind reminds him helpfully. But then the scene totally changes. The alpha pulls his arm from Keith’s touch and brings it under the table. Lance can pin point the exact moment when Keith’s flirty expression changes to something horrible. Lance is standing up from his seat even before Keith has the time to tell the alpha off.

“Lance?” Hunk asks, and then he follows Lance’s line of sight to Keith’s table.

“What? You don’t like that?” Lance hears the alpha laugh, leaning even closer to Keith who is trying to shrink away.

“Let _go_ of me,” Keith growls back. The alpha grins and shuffles his arm around under the table, as if he’s dragging his hand up and down Keith’s thigh. Lance is out of his chair immediately, though he’s not sure what he had planned of doing—he doesn’t even know how to fight—but Hunk immediately grabs a hold of his arm to reel him back in. But even if he hadn’t grabbed him, Keith is way faster and more competent to defend himself than Lance ever could have been. One second the alpha towers over the omega, and the next Keith has him displayed over the table, head pressed down right next to a tray of food.

“Listen, you fucking dickwipe, when people say ‘don’t touch me’, they usually mean it. So don’t fucking _keep_ touching them,” he hisses, drags the alpha across the table and lets him drop down on the floor. The older alpha gets up on his knees and grabs the side of the table.

“Yeah? Well maybe you should stop being such a fucking tease then, Keith? Huh?” He stands up and leans across the table to tower over Keith again. A typical move to intimidate. “Maybe you shouldn’t lead alphas on like that, strutting around with your scent glands on display and touch alphas with your slinky fingers like a slut, if you don’t want them to touch you back. You were fucking begging for it.”

“Hey, _asshole_!” Lance shouts across the tables. He doesn’t even care that he’d get crushed in a fight with that alpha, he just can’t stand the idea of anyone degrading Keith—degrading _anyone_ like that. “Maybe you should just walk away, yeah? And shut the fuck up when you’re at it, literally no one is _ever_ in the mood of listening to you rant about your rape-y sexism.”

The alpha turns around slowly to look at him, and he doesn’t seem surprised at all that it’s Lance that decided to speak up.

“Lance, stay out of it!” Keith shouts at him, both hands placed on the table. The senior alpha laughs at this.

“Yeah, _Lance_ ,” he says and starts walking over to him. He notices Keith scramble to move around the table to follow. “Listen to the little omega and stay out of it, will you? This is none of your business.”

“Evan, _walk away,_ ” Keith shouts and grabs the alpha’s wrist to stop him from getting any closer.

 _Evan_. So this is the asshole who bothered Keith so much this summer they had to move him across campus to get him away from the omega. Lance can feel adrenaline pump into his veins, and to be honest, he’s getting royally pissed off. Why is Keith even bothering with this asshole right now?

“It’s a public place, you dumb fuck. You fucking made it my business when you decided to harass other students in the middle of the cafeteria, _Evan_ ,” Lance mocks and takes a step closer as well, Hunk immediately grabs a better hold of him. The alpha, Evan, finally reaches his destination and squares up right in front of Lance, but Lance is feeling too angry right now to get intimidated. He straightens up too and is so happy that he’s tall for his age because Evan can’t even tower over him. Keith reaches the commotion as well and puts a hand on Lances chest and pushes against him, but Lance won’t budge. Hunk however deems it safe enough to let go of his arm, but he remains standing by his side as support.

“Seriously, Lance. I can handle it,” Keith says more quietly to him, his eyes begging him to back away.

“But that’s the thing though, isn’t it?” Lance glances down to acknowledge Keith, and back to glare at Evan again. “This isn’t something that Keith should have to _handle_.”

“I think you’re stepping out of line, tough guy. Maybe you should reconsider what you’re saying and who you decide to pick fights with?” Evan shoves Lance’s shoulder and forces Lance to take a step back.

“I don’t think _I’m_ the one picking fights, knothead,” Lance counters, quickly shuffling Keith to the side so he won’t be in the way if Evan decides to throw fists. “And you know, from here it kind of looks like you’re the one who’s out of line.” Lance throws his hands out and gestures to the empty slots next to Evan, only emphasizing how Lance’s got both Hunk, Keith and probably the majority of the people at his table ready to stand up for him if anything were to go down. “I think you should just walk away, man. Seriously. Just walk away.” He talks calmly, keeping his eyes leveled with Evan to show him that he cannot be intimidated. However, the only thing that does for him is giving him a few extra seconds to watch as Evan scrunches his eyebrows together before his arm arches back, fist clenched tight. Keith immediately pulls Lance against him.

“ _Evan_ , don’t—“

“Is there a problem here?” a commanding voice sounds across the whole cafeteria. Lance sees how the fist, almost on beeline for his face, lowers quickly. He glances behind him and sees instructor Shirogane watching them only a few feet away. His scent carries his authority and superiority over the scene and Lance immediately relaxes.

“Not at all, Mr. Shirogane!” Evan smiles brightly. Shiro looks over directly at Keith who’s still standing with his fingers buried in Lances uniform.

“It’s fine, Shiro,” Keith mumbles and pulls his hands away. Lance frowns and shakes his head.

“No, it’s not _fine_ , Keith—” he begins but the sharp look Keith levels him with is enough to leave his mouth hanging half open. Lance’s eyes don’t leave his as he’s contemplating how to go on with the situation.

“Everything’s cool here,” Evan says and throws an arm over Lance’s shoulders, like they’re buddies. “Right, Lance?”

Lance doesn’t let go of Keith’s gaze as he answers, though Keith seems to shrink in on himself, shame noticeable in his scent.

“Yeah. We’re cool.”

“Keith?” Shiro pushes but Keith refuses to look at him.

“Everything’s fine, Shiro,” he says. Shiro looks at him a few extra moments before a deflated sigh escapes him.

“Well, then. Evan, can you come with me for a bit?”

Evan doesn’t seem pleased by this at all, but he pulls his arm off Lance’s shoulders and bumps his own into it as he passes and follows Mr. Shirogane out of the cafeteria. Lance puts his hand on Keith’s arm and bows his head to catch his eyes. Keith meets his reluctantly.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asks, maybe letting some soothing pheromones out Keith’s way to calm him down a bit. Keith closes his eyes and clenches his fist.

“I don’t need you to save me, Lance,” he says instead of answering the question.

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I was just going to sit here and listen without _doing_ anything—“

“I was handling it!” Keith snaps and recoils from Lance’s touch. Lance holds his hand up in mock surrender, taking a step back.

“Okay,” he says quietly. “Okay. Sorry for caring, Keith.” It’s petty, Lance is well aware. But if Keith won’t be reasonable then Lance doesn’t see why he has to be either. Keith doesn’t rise to the bait anyway, he only turns and walks out of the cafeteria, his omega friend scurries out directly after him. Lance can hear her shouting after Keith to wait. When they’re gone the deafening silence seems to break and suddenly the cafeteria explodes with voices. Only then does he realize that half the cafeteria has been staring at them, like a live audience.

Lance squeezes his eyes shut and groans up at the ceiling.

“Lance?” Hunk asks cautiously.

“Why does he have to be so fucking difficult?” he sighs. Hunk makes a noncommittal sound and pulls down Lance to sit at their table again.

“Wow. You never get a boring lunch when you sit at this table,” a beta guy says and smiles at Lance when they’re all seated. Lance gives him a halfhearted glare that makes the beta look away in embarrassment.

“True that,” Pidge says and keeps eating his food, as if never having been interrupted at all.

 

.

 

A few day’s pass without any drama at all. Lance tries not to think about Keith and how messed up it is that he wouldn’t accept Lance’s and even Shiro’s help. Why did he react like that? Lance was only trying to help. Actually, now that he thinks about it, he’s surprised and disappointed that no one else said anything. The whole cafeteria just stood back and watched. Is this what society has come to?

“Hey, McClain!”

Lance glances behind him when he hears his name echoing above the noise of other students in the corridor. He was just on his way to his dorm to meet up Hunk before dinner. A junior alpha, who’s name Lance doesn’t even know but he’s totally seen him bothering Keith before, comes jogging up to his side.

“What’s up?” Lance says but keeps walking. The guy—a total dudebro—follows and clears his throat.

”Nothing really, me and some other alphas were just wondering when you’re gonna tame that little omega of yours, or if maybe you can let some of us have a piece of him,” he says casually, like it’s not a totally disgusting thing to say. Lance grounds to a halt and glares at the older alpha.

“What,” he growls. Not a question, more of a statement.

“Woah, dude. I get it. He’s yours. We all saw what happened in the cafeteria the other day. No need to be like that.” The dudebro raises his palms in surrender, but his smirk indicates that he’s somehow letting Lance partake in whatever it is he thinks he’s doing right now, lumping them together as if they’re sharing a joke. Lance wants nothing to do with it.

“What the fuck are you talking about.” Lance is so tense he feels like a vein is surely going to explode somewhere on his body.

“Your omega, dude. Keith? The feisty one? Ring a bell?” The dudebro is looking at him as if he wasn’t prepared for Lance to be this stupid, but Lance is too busy clenching his jaw together just so he won’t fucking try to rip the alphas neck open with his teeth to really care about what this asshole thinks of him.

“He’s not my omega,” Lance manages. The other alphas eyebrows fly up over his forehead.

“The fuck? But he always smells like you? Hmm, just fuck buddies then? Damn, and here I’ve been asking you for permission like a gentleman for nothing,” he laughs. Lance does not. “Anyway, I don’t know if you’re exclusive or nah, but when you’re done with him or if you ever feel like sharing I have like six friends who’d be the first alphas on the call list, okay?”

 _Is this what Keith has to go through every day?_ Lance knew what he was about to do was wrong, God that was why he made his fucking rule to begin with, but he just won’t ever forgive himself if it turns out that this alpha does something to hurt Keith. Especially when Lance fully well had a chance to stop him. Lance takes a deep breath to calm himself down a smidge. Rules are meant to be broken anyway, he thinks, and then he levels the alpha with as much power in his alpha voice he can muster and speaks.

“ _Stay the fuck away from Keith_ ,” Lance says, his dark voice going even lower. He takes a step closer to the alpha and realizes that he’s an inch or so taller, and tries to tower above him as much as he can. At first Lance’s intimidation seems to work as the alpha immediately hunches in on himself slightly, but then he seems to remember that he’s older than Lance and won’t let himself get alpha commanded by a “weaker” alpha. 

“What the fuck, dude?” he says and pushes back on Lance, but he doesn’t move. Instead Lance takes a hold of the other alphas forearm and pushes it into his chest, pressing the dudebro into the lockers. By now the students around them have stopped to watch the spectacle.

“I said, _stay away from Keith_ , okay? Don’t touch him. Don’t speak to him. Don’t go near him,” Lance gives the instructions calmly, alpha commands mixing with his ordinary voice, but anyone can hear on his voice that he is seconds from losing it. “ _Don’t even fucking breathe the same air as him_.” Lance swears he could hear the alpha whimper into the metal locker door, and Lance pushes even harder against him to really show that he should not fuck with Lance or challenge what he said. He’s just about to let go when another voice echoes around him.

“ _Lance_! What the fuck are you doing?” Keith’s suddenly by his side, easily pulling Lance away, and the older alpha sinks down a bit to the floor before finding his balance again.

“Don’t go near him,” Lance says as a final warning to the hunched alpha beneath him. Keith frowns.

“Don’t go near who? Lance? People were saying you were fighting!” Keith haven’t dropped his grip on Lances arm, looking him over to see if he can find any wounds or damages. Lance stares back at him, kind of surprised Keith’s even standing by his side right now. “Are you hurt anywhere?” Keith says and puts a hand on Lance’s cheek to turn his face, looking for any signs of a fight.

“No, no I’m fi—“ and that’s all Lance gets to say before a fist connects with his eyebrow. To Lance’s credit, he didn’t fall over or anything, at most the blow just knocked his face out of Keith’s grip, but damn, it fucking hurts to get hit by your temple.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Lance hisses and rubs the heel of his hand over the hit area. He’s blinking his eyes open just in time to see Keith push the dudebro alpha away from them, hard enough for him to fall flat on his ass.

“Fucking dumbass,” Keith says and then turns towards Lance, looking absolutely furious. “ _You_ ,” he says menacingly. ”I’m not done with you either.”

Keith takes Lance’s hand that is not currently holding his entire scull together and pulls him away from the crowd that had collected in a big half circle around the scene. Lance doesn’t even care where they’re going, at this point he’d follow the omega anywhere.

They only step by the kitchen entrance quick enough for Keith to sneak in and get a towel and some crushed ice for Lance to hold against his temple and then they’re off again. Keith leads him in silence, the only sounds being the stomping of their feet and heavy breaths as Keith ushers them out of some back door and up the metal staircases on the side of the campus building. Finally, they arrive on the roof where Keith pulls him all the way to the edge before sitting down. Lance immediately pulls both his feet over the railing while Keith sits down right next to him but in the opposite direction, his back towards the view.

Lance hums as he takes in the scenery, the sun still shining brightly but is clearly about to go down, casting their surrounding in a pale orange light. Keith looks down on his hands in his lap and doesn’t seem to care for it at all.

“So, did you force me up all of those stairs for a reason, or…” Lance prompts, when Keith doesn’t say anything. That immediately catches the omega’s attention.

“Lemme see,” he mumbles and reaches for the towel of ice. Lance closes his eyes quickly when he realizes Keith’s face is only a few inches away from his in this position.

“ _Ow_ , Jesus Christ!” he hisses and opens his eyes again when Keith pokes him right where it hurts the most. The omega only frowns at him.

“Don’t be a baby,” he says and keeps prodding around his forehead. Lance reluctantly keeps his eyes open this time to be more prepared if Keith decides to poke him again with his evil fingers. He totally played himself, though, because now he’s staring right into the gorgeous omega’s face, inches away from his cute nose, and his dark eyes that glows almost pale violet in this lightning, and his lips—those plump lips that he recalls pressed into the corner of his mouth only a month ago or so.

The alpha leans closer unconsciously and doesn’t notice until Keith pokes him again and clears his throat.

“You’ve got a cut over your eyebrow,” he says and gives back the towel to Lance. He immediately presses it over his eyebrow and looks away from the omega to avoid his gaze. “But it’s super tiny, I promise. You won’t even get a cool scar.”

Lance chuckles at this, at the omegas awkward attempt at comforting him.

“That sucks, I really wanted one,” Lance responds lightheartedly. He hears Keith shuffle around next to him and throws him a glance while discreetly scenting the air. The omega smells just like all of Lance’s favorite meals that his mama cooks, and like the way the sun reflects through his windows in his room back at home when he wakes up in the mornings, just like usual, but there’s also the bitterness of something… maybe some anxiety and anger mixed in there? Lance sighs.

“Just yell at me already, why drag it out?” Lance leans back with his palms griping the railing to keep him from falling backwards. He’s sure he smells a spike of annoyance from the omega.

“What the fuck was that fight about?” Keith asks, right on the bat. Lance wrinkles his nose, while trying to come up with something that won’t make Keith throw him over the roof edge.

“Uh, you know… he was just being an asshole and I kind of lost it,” Lance says, trying to dodge the question.

“No, I think there’s more you’re not telling me. And you alpha commanded him, Lance. You alpha commanded an _alpha_.” Keith turned to sit angled towards Lance, which makes it even harder for Lance to lie, so he just sighs and drops the towel from his head, looking up at the omega.

“Okay, look. I know you’ll get mad or whatever about this,” and Keith looks like he’s about to interrupt but Lance pushes through, “ _but_ , you must know that I would have done this for anyone. For any omega, beta or alpha. No one deserves to be treated like that.” When it seemed as if he had the omegas attention he continued. “Basically the guy came up to me and asked if I was up to sharing you or whatever,” he mumbled quickly, but of course Keith caught the whole thing.

“Sharing me?” he asked confused, and Lance curses his whole being for having to talk to Keith about this.

“Uh, you know, as in… in a sexual way.” Lance coughs and looks away, but can still feel the spike of embarrassment in the omega’s scent.

“Oh,” he says softly, and Lance turns his head back towards him. Keith is back to looking at his hands in his lap, his pale fingers playing with a strand of thread hanging from the end of his shirt. The omega just looks so incredibly vulnerable like this, hunched into himself, not meeting Lance’s eyes.

“He’s an asshole Keith,” Lance says and releases a gust of calming pheromones as the sudden urge to comfort the omega raises within him. “Don’t listen to what he says.” Keith doesn’t look up at him but he nods slightly.

“Why was he asking you?” Keith mumbled after a while. Lances heart pounded hard against his chest at the question.

“What?” Lance asked, buying himself more time. Keith glanced over at the alpha.

“Why was he asking _you_ if you wanted to _share_ me?” he clarifies, a spike of annoyance filtering through the air. Not necessarily directed at Lance, but in general. It still freaked Lance out to answer the question though.

“Oh, uh… I mean, I don’t really know. He just thought you were my omega, I guess,” Lance rambled, trying to act more casual than his traitorous scent probably displayed. But the thing is, Lance could smell Keith’s scent too, though muddled, and there was a vague couple of seconds where Lance thought he could smell pride and satisfaction before the omega seemed to catch on and quell down the scent.

“He thought you were my alpha,” was all Keith responded with, but hearing the omega refer to Lance with the words ‘my alpha’—even in this context—made something clog in his throat, because he could only nod erratically and keep his eyes set on the sky.

“Hmm,” Keith said, and Lance had no idea what he meant by that but he agreed. The silence spread out around them as a blanket, not really what they needed in this heat, but still cozy in a way. Until Lance’s phone called and ruined the mood completely. Lance scrambled to get the phone out of his pocket, almost dropping both the phone and the ice towel from the roof before finally accepting the call.

“Lance, where the heck are you? I heard Eliza talk about a fight and then some other betas said you were hurt and I’ve been looking for you _everywhere_ and you weren’t at the infirmary—“

“Hunk, buddy. Calm down, I’m fine. I’m up on the ro—” Keith quickly shoved his hand over Lance’s mouth and shook his head vigorously. Lance furrowed his eyebrows but nodded. The hand fell away so he could continue his conversation.

“Lance? Lance! Oh no, please don’t tell me you’re like half dead in a ditch somewhere—should I get a teacher? A medic? Lance, are you dead?”

“I’m fine! I’m fine, I’m… on my way to the cafeteria right now, buddy. I’ll see you there and explain everything, okay?” Lance said, though he really didn’t want to leave this little bubble with Keith.

“ _Oh_ , okay, yeah, I’m almost there too. I’ll, uh, get a hold of Pidge as well. Heh, funny story, he went to knock on Keith’s door to see if you were there so I’m just gonna go and stop him now immediately— _bye_!” and then Lance was met with the beeping of a declined call. He held the phone up in front of him and frowned at the display.

“What?” Keith mumbled, now sitting with his arms snaked around his legs, mouth pressed onto his knees. The position caused his eyes to peer through his dark bangs. Lance gazed over at him and was almost knocked over by the softness that was Keith Kogane.

“Seems like everyone thinks you’re my omega,” he huffs out without thinking, like an actual idiot. A blush spreads quickly across Keith’s face and he makes a cute sound that he probably didn’t mean for to come out. Lance just wants to throw himself off the roof, mostly, but he can’t stop staring at Keith with his mouth wide open.

“Uh, _anyway_ , I need to leave, and go, and I really need to go—so, I’ll see you around,” he stammers and slams his feet down on the safe side of the railing and hurries across the roof until he finally gets to escape down the stairs, leaving the flustered omega behind.


	3. Forced Heat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said this was going to be posted on friday (and that it was going to be only about 5k words, woops), but I finished it like 5 minutes ago and I'm impatient. This is not edited so if there are misspelled words and shit just ignore, I'll read through soon and fix it-enjoy the ending of this fic!!

Keith is back at staring at Lance where ever he goes, and now whenever Keith spots Lance in the hallways he even dares to drag his hand all the way up Lance’s arm before they pass each other, fingers ghosting across his shoulder—it makes goosebumps spread all over Lance’s body every time.

Lance has no idea what Keith is doing. He thought they got along pretty well up on the roof? Like, he thought they might have come to some kind of agreement or something that Keith would stop with this game now… but the omega apparently didn’t think so. Lance is suffering more than ever and he just can’t understand why Keith is doing this to him.

“That is a _very_ intense stare,” a voice interrupts Lance and Keith’s stare down one day a few minutes before class is about to begin. Lance whips his head to the person seated next to him and sees a girl giving him an amused smirk.

“Woah, where did you come from?” Lance says, like the charming alpha he is. The girl, a beta according to her scent, snorts lightly.

“I’ve had this seat next to you since school started,” she huffs, but her scent is still displaying an amused tone so Lance’s shame trickles away slowly. “You must have been very distracted,” she continues pointedly, glancing over at Keith. Lance follows her line of sight and sees Keith watching them, a stoic expression on his face. Lance winces and turns back to the girl.

“Sorry,” he says sheepishly.

“It’s cool,” she answers and puts her head onto her palm, leaning closer to him in the process. “I’ve got your attention now.”

Lance can practically feel his heart beating harder at that. Is she flirting with him? It feels like flirting to Lance. He lets out a nervous chuckle and glances down at their shared table to escape her smirk for a second.

“So, is anything going on between you and Keith?” she asks, pulling a strand of her long light brown hair behind her ear.

“No! _No_ , nothing at all,” he huffs out urgently. He couldn’t imagine Keith would be very happy if Lance started telling people they were anything except occasional friends. Even if Lance personally is completely in love with the omega, it is very much one sided and nothing to brag about to pretty beta girls. “Why?” he inquires.

Said beta furrows her eyebrows but gives him a kind smile anyway.

“Well, you stare at each other _a_ _lot_ , and he kinda smells like you sometimes… and I don’t know, it’s just the vibe you two give off. Like no one can even touch you,” she says and now it’s her time to break their eye contact.

“What the fuck,” Lance breathes, completely unaware of this.

“Yeah,” she sighs, smiling back at him.

“Well, we’re not together,” Lance concludes. She raises an eyebrow and leans towards him again.

“Not even in secret?” she asks all conspiratorial, and Lance can’t help the laugh escaping him.

“No, not even in secret,” he says and tries to enjoy her flirting, even though it kind of hurts to talk about his very non existing dating life with Keith. But he can’t stay hung up on the omega forever, he might just as well flirt on. What’s the worst that can happen?

They flirt a bit more over the course of the week, just getting to know each other really. Her name is Jessica and just like she told him before, she’s been his table partner for a little over a month now (and liked him for at least half of that time), and Lance is utterly embarrassed that he hasn’t even talked to her before. She’s cool about it though, telling him she doesn’t mind that he’s a clueless idiot. And that’s one of the things about Jessica that pulls Lance in. She’s so easy going and doesn’t mind that Lance is a bit aloof and detached, though Lance really is trying to not think of Keith when they hang out or when she eventually kisses him. Sometimes his mind just slips, he literally can’t help it.

Keith doesn’t stop staring at them though, and Lance gets a sick kind of satisfaction over the situation that his mother would not be very proud of. Lance stares back at him, smirking when Jessica weaves their fingers together in class that day.

Keith stops touching him in the hallways. Lance finds himself kind of missing it.

Dinner is over and most of the student body is currently chilling out in their dormitories or on campus, but Lance is walking back briskly towards the classroom where he had his last lecture and thinks it’s where he must have left his notebook. He really needs it to study for the huge exam tomorrow. He curses himself for not paying attention to all his stuff and instead focusing on the way Keith stayed stubbornly turned away from him the whole time.

He jogs the last bit until he’s right outside the door. He puts his hand on the doorknob and pulls, but the door is locked.

“Fucking shit balls!” he growls and kicks the door halfheartedly.

“Uh, do you need help?” Keith’s voice sounds from behind him. Lance whirls around and sees the omega standing frozen at the intersection of halls a few feet from Lance, as if he was just about to turn the corner but stopped when he saw Lance kicking the door. Lance stares dumbfound at him.

“Where did you come from?” he asks, and to Lance’s surprise he sees a light blush spread over Keith’s cheeks, but the omega stares back just as stoic as ever.

“Teachers’ lounge,” he says simply before reaching up to his hair, pulling out something—a hairpin?—and briskly walks past Lance to the door. He sinks down to his knees and works the little black needle looking thingy into the lock, and only a few seconds later the door clicks open. Lance inhales a huge amount of air into a gasp, both kind of impressed by his skills and confused over why the omega even helped. But then he feels a foreign scent in the air, and it’s mixed into Keith’s just the way Lance’s used to be.

Keith gets up from the floor, not meeting the alpha’s eyes. Lance makes it a quick business of going inside and retrieving his notebook and finds Keith still standing outside in the hallway when he comes out.

Lance closes the door slowly, making a show out of deliberately not thanking Keith, because he just assumes that’s why Keith’s still lingering. When Keith doesn’t say anything even as Lance’s been flipping through his notes in a desperate attempt of looking busy, Lance can’t ignore the potent scent of Takashi Shirogane _reeking_ from Keith anymore.

“I didn’t know you were into older alphas,” he says, still pretending to read his notes. He glances up quickly though to catch Keith’s reaction, which is barely a reaction really. His scent changes to something Lance can’t read though.

“What?” the omega asks, sounding righteously pissed, Lance supposes. And Lance really isn’t usually this much of a douchebag, but there’s something about Keith smelling like instructor Shirogane that really rubs him the wrong way.

“Wow, playing dumb really doesn’t suit you at all,” he answers like the biggest asshole on this entire planet.

“What the fuck are you even talking about,” Keith hisses through his teeth and steps closer to Lance. This only enhances Mr. Shirogane’s scent though and Lance can feel the urge to re-scent Keith with his own rise inside him.

“I mean, good for you… or something. I bet you’ll get good grades,” he says, still as flippantly as before while riling up the omega.

“You mean _Shiro_?” Keith almost shrieks back, as if that’s an absurd thought. “It’s not like that, Lance!”

Lance gives Keith a doubting look. Like, why else would Shiro scent Keith if not to scare away every other alpha competition on campus from the omega? Lance just didn’t realize that it was something Keith would be into. It’s honestly a real hard blow on his self-esteem that Keith’s hot for alphas like Mr. Shirogane, considering he’s literally the opposite of everything Lance is.

“Why do you even care? Like you’re not walking around smelling like _Jessica_ all the fucking time,” Keith counters. Lance drops his casual façade for a moment, not prepared on having this fight turned on him so suddenly. How does Keith even know Jessica’s name? Lance didn’t think Keith was even interested in knowing the names of their classmates.

“That’s not even close to what this is about!” Lance shrieks back.

“What?” Keith says in disbelief. “How the fuck is that not the same thing?”

“I don’t go around smelling like a _teacher_ , Keith. That’s the fucking difference.” Lance crossed his arms over his chest, afraid that Keith would be able to _see_ his heart beating out of it. “What, were you trying to sneak back to your dorm after getting snuggly with Mr. Shirogane? Oh my god. You totally _were_!”

Keith slams his palms out and groans loudly.

“It’s not _like_ that! I said that already!” he shouts, and this time he sounds more frustrated, desperate even for Lance to believe him. Lance does not, and Keith seems to see that in the look he gives him because distressed pheromones starts circulating them both. “You’re so dense, Lance. You don’t get _anything_. Why don’t you get anything?” Keith starts walking around in the hall, and Lance is pretty sure the question was rhetorical, but he doesn’t get it. What the fuck does he mean Lance doesn’t understand _anything_? Lance understands plenty things, he just doesn’t get why Keith had to go for a fucking teacher. They’re only 16! Mr. Shirogane is like… at least 23 or something. He’s _old_ , okay?!

“Hey! I’m not _dense_ ,” Lance defends himself, albeit a bit lackluster. Keith turns his head and stares at him.

“But you are! It’s like you don’t even notice—I’ve tried _everything_ and you just—you just… _Ugh_! I can’t even _believe_ you right now!” he shouts and Lance is officially lost on the turn of the conversation. He’s also starting to get really angry at the omega. How the fuck does this have anything to do with Keith smelling like a fucking Shirogane cake? And if Lance is such a stupid, _dense_ alpha, then why the fuck is Keith putting so much energy into messing with him?

“Oh, _you_ can’t believe _me_? Okay, I see. Well I can’t believe you’ve kept my hoodie all this time and walked around smelling like me everywhere,” Lance says. “What’s up with that Keith? Why are you messing around like that? What? You thought I would come running or something?” Keith stops walking and shrinks back a step, staring at Lance with huge eyes. “Oh, you did? Didn’t you? I bet that must have been a waste of time then. I don’t give a fuck about what you do with my hoodie, Keith, you can keep it. I just don’t understand why you have to rub it in my face when you just could have fucking asked Mr. Shirogane to rub his icky hands all over you. But no, you had to have _my_ scent, is that right? Well, I’m right here Keith, like _damn_ , if you want to smell like me so badly, why didn’t you just fucking come to me?” Lance tantalizes, even though he knows half of the things coming out of his mouth are pure lies and speculation. This is one of Lance’s less favorable personality traits though; once he starts rambling it’s very hard to stop the words from coming out, and by then it doesn’t matter what he says or who he hurts, as long as he stays talking.

“I don’t—I didn’t—“ the omega stammers but he doesn’t get anything out.

“You didn’t _what_ , Keith?” Lance prods and takes a step closer. Keith makes a terrible groan and hides his face in his hands. Lance finally realizes that he should probably back off. By the prickling of his skin he notices that the omega’s started emitting pheromones of _fear_ towards the intimidating alpha.

“Uh, Keith?” Lance asks, softer this time, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. “Buddy? I’m not… mad. Fuck.” He takes a careful step closer, putting his hand on the omega’s shoulder. “Keith, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—“

“I have to go,” Keith mumbles and shrugs off Lance’s hand. Lance doesn’t even get to react before the omega turns around, barely giving Lance a glance before he’s marching down the hall and disappears behind the corner. Lance stands frozen for a while, trying to collect his thoughts. What did he do to make Keith send such alarming pheromones at him?

“You’re a fucking _asshole_ , Lance, that’s what,” he groans to himself and starts walking the other way, fighting to restrain the uninhibited urge to hunt down the omega and make sure he’s safe. He knows that Keith is safe, at least physically, and that it’s just his instincts that are reacting to the lingering fear pheromones in the air, but that doesn’t stop Lance from beating down on himself for even letting it get to that point where Keith felt he had to release those pheromones. It really wasn’t what Lance intended at all. He just wanted to get some answers, and sure, maybe his way of doing it was a bit petty and mean but it wasn’t anything he thought Keith would take to heart. More than anything he thought Keith would get mad and wonder what the fuck Lance was even talking about. But hearing the high pitched groan exit the omega’s throat, and seeing the way he hid his face into his palms as if wanting to escape from the alpha, Lance gets that something got to Keith and it’s all Lance’s fault. Maybe the omega’s right… Maybe Lance really is a bad alpha.

 

.

 

“Hey, Lance. Why the sad face?” Jessica asks when she arrives in Lance’s and Hunks dorm. Hunk is playing games in the corner on their tv and Jessica goes to sit down on Lances bed next to him where he’s slouched down. She gives Hunk a stare before looking back at Lance.

“It’s nothing,” Lance mumbles, definitely not in the mood to tell Jessica all about his altercation with Keith earlier. She furrows her eyebrows suspiciously but drops the subject. Lance feels kind of bad about ruining their hang out when he’s in such a bad mood, but he honestly doesn’t really care about the hanging out part itself and more about Jessica wasting her time. He’d rather her just going back to her own room so Lance can wallow in his confused sadness.

“Okay,” she sighs, but a sneaky smirk ghosts in the corner of her mouth. “How about you and I go out for a bit?”

Lance glances over at her. He really doesn’t want to leave the safe refugee of his bed. Jessica notices the way he looks at her.

“Come on, Lance! It’ll be _cozy_.” She pulls his arm until they’re both out of bed and headed towards the door. Lance groans to himself and nods at Hunk who wiggles his eyebrows back in return.

“See you later, Lance!” he shouts and laughs before the door closes behind them and blocks more sound from coming out of the room. Jessica starts dragging him along the halls until they end up at the kitchen entrance. She instructs him to wait outside while she sneaks in and grabs a bottle of soda and some left over cookies from the cafeteria. Lance gets some totally unwanted déjà vu feels as she takes his hand again and starts walking.

“Where are we going?” Lance asks when the déjà vu won’t go away.

“The roof!” Jessica says happily, a big smile directed at him. Lance grounds to a halt and Jessica turns to gives him a weird look. “What? You scared of heights?”

” _No_ , nothing like that,” Lance chuckles awkwardly. “I just, uh… do we really have to go to the roof?”

“Oh, come on, Lance. It’ll be fun!” Jessica begs and tugs his arm playfully.

It’s not that Lance really minds hanging out with Jessica on a roof, but this is Keith’s roof, and it really doesn’t sit well with Lance to invade his space like that. Not when he had shown Lance very clearly that he doesn’t want other people to know about the roof. Well, not that it’s this super big secret. Obviously a lot of students know about the place, including Jessica apparently, but not many dare to get up there. There’s a lot of sneaking involved, and Lance guesses not everyone thinks it’s worth the risk.

“It’s so romantic on the roof,” Jessica sighs and bats her long eyelashes towards him, and Lance is a weak man. So he let’s himself get manhandled towards the same backdoor Keith pulled him through a week ago, and he laughs when Jessica turns around and walks backwards up the stairs to make stupid faces at him. And he lets her spin them around when they reach the top and sort of waltzes them sloppily onto the roof. He’s got his arms full of Jessica when she suddenly stops and stares at something behind Lance.

“Oh,” she says. ”Looks like we’re not alone up here.”

Lance immediately turns around and his eyes connect with Keith’s from where he’s sitting, in the exact same spot they sat together before. Lance’s whole body freezes and a single string of _fucks_ echoes through his head.

“Lance?” Keith says in this uncharacteristically pitiful, _broken_ voice, and it was honestly worse than any insult he could have ever thrown Lance’s way. Keith’s eyes drift from Lance over to Jessica, taking in the way Lance’s arms are snaked around her body, and something ugly twists his usually delicate features. That’s when Lance notices that Keith is crying, and by the looks of his red, puffy eyes he’s probably been crying since long before Lance and Jessica stumbled onto the roof. The omega’s eyes go back to Lance and even through the tears running down his cheeks he manages that stoic expression of his again. “You’re a fucking asshole, Lance,” Keith sobs before getting up from his crouched position, arms wrapped around his whole body as protection, and storms past them and disappears down the stairs.

Lance stays frozen, super aware of the scent Keith left behind, reeking of distress, anger and betrayal. Lance can feel every inhale stab him somewhere deep in his chest.

“What the fuck,” Jessica says softly, stepping out of Lance’s embrace. “I though you said you two weren’t together?”

“We’re not.” Lance’s voice sound completely deflated, as if all the life force in his voice has gone out. Jessica gives him a contemplating look.

“Sure seems like Keith thought you were,” she says and crosses her arms over her chest. Lance closes his eyes and kind of wishes he was literally anywhere but here. Jessica’s got this completely wrong. Keith’s just mad that Lance would betray his trust and bring another person up on the roof, because Lance is a fucking asshole.

When he doesn’t answer Jessica sighs.

“I think I should go.”

“I’m sorry,” Lance says quietly, but doesn’t open his eyes. This is such a fucking mess. He regrets ever flirting back with Jessica, not that she’s a bad person—it’s the complete opposite. She’s too _good_ and she doesn’t deserve being treated like this.

“It’s fine… I guess.” Then Jessica surprises Lance into opening his eyes when she lets out a light chuckle. “I mean, I kind of knew this whole time that you would always be a bit…” she trails off and gestures vaguely towards where Keith exited the roof. Then she looks down at her foot drawing invisible lines on the ground and sighs again. “It’s always been you and Keith. I don’t know why I thought I could change that.” Lance furrows his eyebrows in confusion at that strange statement. “Anyway, yeah. We’re cool Lance. I just don’t think we should be more than friends, you know, to save us all from more heartbreak,” she says and gives him a playful smirk to show him that she really means it. They’re cool. She lets out a bittersweet laugh and starts walking towards the stairs, but then she stops right when she’s about to go down and looks back at Lance. “Uh, I know this really isn’t any of my business… but I really think you should talk to Keith.” She gives him one last kind smile and then she’s gone.

Lance doesn’t know if he thinks he deserves her kindness. This was not at all how he wanted the night to end. He feels guilty about not really minding breaking up with Jessica, not that he wouldn’t miss her—she’s a really great person and friend. But Lance is pretty sure he was never into her the same way she was into him, which makes Lance a shitty person either way for even leading her on.

Then he feels an even greater and heavier kind of guilt building in his chest. Keith. He betrayed Keith. He made Keith _cry._ Lance is almost sure Keith was crying because of their fight earlier. Obviously Lance had hurt him more than what he even thought was possible, and that fucking _sucks_. He’s probably ruined whatever little chance that remained of them ever being anything more than friends—if even that anymore.

“ _Fuck_!” he shouts into the night and drags his hands down over his face. He stands like that for a minute or so, contemplating if he should just stay here the whole night as a punishment for himself, but then the chilly air gets unbearable and he starts his descent of the stairs. He doesn’t even notice that he’s already by his dorm until Hunk opens the door and stares at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Uh, you’re back early?” he says but it sounds more like a question.

“I fucked up, Hunk,” Lance answers and then he starts fucking bawling in the middle of the hallway. Hunk immediately pulls him inside the room and into one of his amazingly soft hugs.

“Oh, buddy. It’s going to be fine,” he promises into the crown of Lance’s head. Lance doesn’t believe him for a second, but he doesn’t say that, only holds on tighter to his best friend and cries until nothing comes out anymore.

 

.

 

Lance doesn’t see Keith until lunch the next day. He walks in when Lance is already half through his own meal and stops the alpha in the middle of a motion to fill his mouth with another huge gunk of spaghetti. He stares at the omega, eyes following him as he walks to the cafeteria section to retrieve his lunch. Keith doesn’t even look his way, which is weird, because Lance knows he stares a lot at the omega, but more often than not their eyes usually meet.

Lance feels shame and distress in his own scent, enough evidently to bring Hunk’s attention on him, and Pidge’s… and then most of the people at their table.

“You okay, buddy?” Hunk asks in a low voice—bless his soul for trying to be discreet about Lance’s sudden mood change, not that it really matters when literally everyone can tell he’s distressed. Lance nods erratically, huffing and waving away his best friends concern. He catches Pidge looking at him with a raised eyebrow and then glancing at Keith’s little frame all the way across the room. Lance frowns at him and Pidge just smirks like the evil little gremlin he is.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Lance?” the omega girl next to him (Emily? Emma? Em—something?) says and caresses his arm. Lance follows the motion and keeps frowning. The touch doesn’t sit well with him. Nothing does. He doesn’t want to sit here and have this girl touching him and batting her eyelashes at him. He wants to—he wants to go over to Keith and apologize for bringing Jessica up on the roof and for being an asshole about Mr. Shirogane (though he’s not really sorry about that one. If it’s true that Keith and him are a thing or something then Mr. Shirogane is a creep and Lance really should have another conversation about it with Keith… but he is sorry about upsetting the omega and making him feel so threatened). And there’s a really annoying urge somewhere deep in Lance that wants to put his arms around the omega and comfort him and make sure he’s alright. But Keith would never let him do that. Lance sighs, everything just _sucks_.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he says and smiles though. The girl tilts her head and leans closer.

“You don’t smell fine,” she says and makes a show about sniffing him. Lance recoils and pulls his arm away. Sniffing someone like that isn’t something people just do to each other. It’s fine if you’re friends, and in specific situations, but Lance hardly even knows the omega’s name. Like geez, he knows his scent isn’t super appealing right this moment but everyone can smell that already, there’s no need for her to get all up and close about it. He’s just about to tell her all of this, or maybe just ask her what the fuck she thinks she’s doing, but his attention is caught on something else.

“If you don’t let go of my arm right this second I swear to God I will kick you so hard in the ball sack you’re gonna feel the shape of your own knot in your throat.” Keith’s threat echoes across the whole cafeteria, and every alpha in hearing range winces—Lance himself included. Then the alpha, with his back towards Lance and still not letting go of Keith’s arm, opens his mouth.

                      “Damn, babe, no need to be like that,” he says and leans closer, though Keith clearly didn’t invite this clown into his close proximity. “Here let me help carry your food.” The alpha grabs at the tray of food in Keith’s hands and that absolutely did not sit well at all with Lance. Foremost because Lance is pretty sure Keith told the alpha to fuck off (so I mean, what gives?), and then another uglier part of Lance felt some kind of gross, uncalled for possessiveness over the fact that any other alpha tried to take care of the omega. Which was, like he said, super gross and not at all anything Lance had any right to be feeling, so he suppressed that shit away to deal with later. Both parts however, fueled whatever it was that brought Lance to his feet and briskly walk towards them.

The thing though is now Lance clearly recognize the alpha as Evan—the fucking douchebag stalker that refuses to take a hint—and Lance is 100% ready to throw fists. Honestly, he can’t even explain the urge that has been growing steadily ever since he spotted Keith arriving at the cafeteria, and he can definitely not explain the instincts screaming at him do defend and protect the omega right this second. Like, Keith could probably throw Lance over his head and shatter all his bones without even breaking a sweat so Lance’s attempts at “protecting” the omega would probably only be annoying at best and definitely catastrophic at worst. But he literally could not just sit down and watch this go on and do _nothing_. That’s not how his mama raised him and that’s just not who Lance is or want to be.

So he finally reaches the commotion and puts himself in between Keith and Evan, effectively cutting of the older alpha’s grip on the food tray. He straightens up and glares at Evan into his eyes, but tries to not look as deeply pissed off as he feels.

“Hi, yeah, sorry but Keith definitely told you not to touch him so maybe you should go, man,” he says and gives Evan a stiff smile. He feels Keith putting his hand on Lance’s arm, not really to push him away, actually he gets more of a feeling that Keith is just making himself ready to catch the alpha when Lance eventually gets punched in his face, which is fair, he thinks. However, Lance is totally running completely on adrenaline and misplaced alpha rage so he doesn’t even fear the possibility of that right now. All he knows is that he definitely wants to throw Keith over his shoulder and place him somewhere as far away from Evan as he can. Preferably tucked protectively under Lance’s arm. And in the seat next to him. Maybe with Lance feeding him the food from a shared plate of spaghetti. _Preferably_.

“And how the fuck do _you_ know what Keith wants? Who are you again?” Evan says and sneers at the younger alpha, but Lance doesn’t let himself be intimidated. He _knows_ that Evan knows who he is. He’s now well aware of the weird rumors and gossip about him and Keith, and if Evan is even half as creepy and obsessed with Keith as he seems to be then he’s surely up to date about who Lance is, especially after their little scene in the cafeteria that happened a week ago or so.

The question does stall Lance though, not because he cares about whatever Dick McAsswipe here thinks of him, but because Lance actually doesn’t know what to answer.

“Uh,” he slips, not intending on sounding so unsure. “I’m his _friend_ ,” he settles on saying. Evan smirks.

“Okay then, Keith’s _friend_ , we were in the middle of a conversation that you so rudely interrupted so you can go back to your little omega harem now.” Evan nods back towards Lance’s table, and only now does he notice how there actually is a bunch of omegas sitting by his table, openly staring at him with dreamy wide eyes. Not that Lance minds sitting with omegas or really cares honestly, but he just hasn’t thought about it before and he doesn’t even think they usually sit with them… he thinks? Wow Lance has really been zoned out this term.

He feels Keith’s grip on his arm tense at what Evan said, and then Keith starts to pull Lance backwards.

“Go away Lance. I can handle it,” he says and Lance gets a distinctive feeling that Keith is still very angry with him, but he is so over Keith’s need to deal with these kinds of things alone so he doesn’t budge.

“Yeah, Lance. Keith can handle this,” Evan drawls and puts an arm around Keith’s shoulders, hastily pulling the omega into his embrace and leaning in close. Keith freezes and drops his food tray in surprise, the cutlery scattering across the floor. Lance can smell the alarming spike of discomfort in the omega’s pheromones and that is the thing that finally makes Lance tick off.

“Dude, you seriously need to back off.” Lance steps up against Evan and speaks in a low, dangerous tone that would have surprised even himself if he wasn’t so fully focused on not straight up tackling the older alpha to the ground. He settles on only pushing him away so he drops his grip on Keith, and the whole cafeteria falls silent when Evan staggers backwards a few steps. The alpha growls darkly and pushes back up against Lance. Lance kind of felt a ripple of regret when he realized that this is probably how he dies, but then Keith grabs his hand to reel him back and he was reminded why this was all totally worth it.

“Fuck off, Evan,” Keith hisses at the older alpha and pushes Evan away again. To Lance’s surprise Evan only straightens up and smirks in a condescending way at him.

“Alright, baby boy,” he says and brushes off some invisible dust from his shirt. “I know a claimed omega when I see one. Guess I’ll see you around.” He salutes them and walks past Lance, knocking their shoulders together like an immature baby just like before. Lance is seething and barely gets enough time to recover before he’s shoved lightly again on the other shoulder, this time by Keith.

“What the _fuck_ , Lance!” the omega snarls and crosses his arms over his chest. Lance frowns at the glare he’s leveled with and realizes that Keith is royally pissed off—and at _him_ for some reason.

“What?” Lance says and Keith grits his teeth at him in apparent frustration. “Are you mad at me for defending you?!”

“ _Yes!_ ” the omega shouts and pokes Lance in the chest. “I don’t need any fucking defending—I was handling it!”

Lance sighs exasperatedly. He could practically feel an aneurism coming.

“I know! You always _say_ that, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have people who cares about you and wants to help,” Lance argues and tries to sound as calm and reasonable as possible so the stubborn omega finally can get the sentiment through his thick scull. Keith is reeking of distress and frustration though, so the mission failed. “Keith? I just wanted to help you, can’t you see that—“

“I don’t _need_ your help Lance! God, just fucking back off!” Keith throws his hands out with his palms up and Lance recoils from the omega’s sudden exclamation. The gesture in itself could be read as the omega protecting himself from a threat, but Lance has no intention of ever hurting Keith, so he can see it for what it is.

“ _Keith_.” Lance lowers his voice, aware of the prying students currently staring at them in the cafeteria. He takes a careful step closer, reaching for the omega’s hand. Keith refuses to meet his eyes but doesn’t back away, so Lance guesses that’s a good sign. “You don’t need to handle everything alone. I’ll always be here when shit like this happens, okay?” Lance finally gets a hold of Keith’s hand, and the omega whines softly, probably without meaning to. “You’re _not_ alone.” At that the omega suddenly rips his hand out of Lance’s grip.

“Stop trying to _take_ _care_ of me, asshole! Just _stop_!” he stresses, sounding as if he’s trying to hold back sobs and Lance curses himself for almost making the omega cry _again,_ though he’s still not sure how he’s doing it.

“Of course I want to take care of you!” Lance splutters, a bit of his frustration coming through. Keith lets out a frustrated groan of his own through his teeth and Lance just doesn’t understand what the omega wants him to say. Does he really want Lance to just let stuff like this go down and not intervene? Does Keith really want to be treated like this and for everyone just not to give a shit? What kind of fucked up do you have to be to think like that?

“You have no fucking right to say that!” Keith hisses back at him, waving a hand in the air in front of him as if able to just sweep Lance’s words away. Lance frowns and pushes the hand away, making Keith look up at him.

“Why the fuck not? It’s not like you’re doing it yourself,” Lance hisses back, too dumb to realize that it was the completely wrong thing to say. The way Keith freezes and stares up at him with his wide open eyes kind of clock Lance in though _._ The alpha gasps at his own rudeness by implying Keith is bad at taking care of himself and by default instinctively implying he’s a _bad omega._ He is halfway through thinking of a way to take the words back, but Keith beats him to it. He lowers his dark eyebrows and shoves Lance away from him.

“You stupid fucking alpha!” he shouts and lightly shoves Lance back again, as if he’s too upset to even put some force into it. Lance curses under his breath and grabs the omega’s hands to stop the shoving.

“ _Fuck_ , sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, Keith, I _promise_. I just—I just want you to know that I’ll always be there for you, I care about you,” Lance rambles in panic, desperate for Keith to understand that he is the perfect fucking omega, that there will probably never be any other omegas that Lance will find as amazing as Keith is, ever.

“No, fuck you! I _know_ you don’t care,” Keith sobs, and for real this time. Lance swears he can see the glistering of the tears in his eyes, and wow, that really hurts to see, even for Lance. Keith just doesn’t deserve all of this. The omega keeps struggling to get out of Lance’s embrace, and really Lance wants to just let him go but he’s also pretty fucking desperate for Keith to understand that it’s a misunderstanding.

“God, you’re so stubborn! I just meant I want to be there for you! I’m your fucking friend, Keith, okay? This is what friends _do_ —“

“ _Friends_!” Keith wheezes in a strangled cry.

“— _let me take care of you!”_

The whole cafeteria fell silent at that. Lance didn’t even realize he was alpha commanding Keith until the omega went completely pliant against him and Lance had to scramble to keep him from sinking down to the floor. He whips his head around the room to see if anyone knows what the fuck is going on, but is greeted by the sight of several alphas and betas waving their hands in front of the faces of the closest couple of omegas in Lance’s proximity. They’re only just now shaking the foggy look from their eyes.

 _Holy shit_ , Lance manages to think, _I just fucking alpha commanded the majority of the omegas in this half of the cafeteria_. Quickly followed by: _I’m in so much fucking trouble._

“Fuck,” he breathes and feels the one omega in his arms nestle closer to him, and then he hears the soft purring emitting from somewhere deep inside Keith’s chest. Lance is completely, utterly ruined, fucked, destroyed and every other god damn word that means Lance is gone for Keith specifically. He’s sure this is how he’s going to die, with the most gorgeous omega ever in his arms, _purring_.

“ _Fuck_ , _shit_ , seriously Keith, you need to get up!” Lance tries to get his hands under Keith’s arms and pull him up, but Keith is too docile and only falls back into Lance’s chest. The omega’s hands start traveling up his shoulders and wraps around his neck, and Lance is hit with some pretty hardcore déjà vu feels. “Holy shit, no,” he wheezes and immediately angles his face away from the omega.

Keith hums contently as he rubs his face right into the crook of Lance’s neck, causing a full body shiver to go through the alpha.

“Keith? Buddy?” Lance tries weakly. They both eventually sink down to the floor and Keith keens with joy when Lance puts his hands on him just so he won’t slip out of his grip. “Jesus Christ, uh, you need to wake up, man,” Lance says and chuckles nervously while shaking Keith’s shoulders. The omega looks up at him with a clouded over gaze and tips forward, as if he’s completely out of control of his own joints. Lance puts a hand on Keith’s cheek and the omega immediately presses into it with a soft smile.

“Keith?” Lance asks and his voice is trembling.

“ _Alpha_ ,” Keith whimpers, and a telltale sweet sugary smell tints the air around them. Lance’s whole body freezes and he can’t help the instinct to inhale the enticing scent of slick. _Holy shit_ , the tiny voice echoes inside his head, _holy shit, Keith is in heat!_ Lance has fucking alpha commanded him into heat! God fucking damn it, he’s going to be in so much fucking trouble after this!

The omega is quivering in his arms and Lance pulls him in tighter into his embrace, sheltering Keith from the outside world with his frame.

“Lance,” a voice speaks up behind him. Lance whips his head around, Keith whines softly by the disturbance, and Lance growls towards the threatening voice. “Woah, man. Calm down,” Pidge says and raises his hands.

Lance blinks a few times and shakes his head. Fuck, he totally lost it there for a few seconds. He feels the shame fill his scent when he realizes that he just growled at the beta.

“Sorry, Pidge,” Lance apologizes quickly.

“Lance, listen to me. You need to take Keith to an isolation room,” Pidge urges but doesn’t move any closer to the alpha and omega on the floor. This spurs Lance to throw a glance around the room and suddenly the predatory looks from most alphas in the room seems more impending than they did before. He can’t help another growl to claw its way out of his throat, bigger and louder this time, clearly meant to scare the alphas away from his mate.

Keith mewled and pressed closer into Lance’s shirt at the sound of his alpha growling. This made sirens blare in Lance’s head—a tangible sign of ‘GET OMEGA OUT OF HERE’.

“Shit, _okay_ , okay I got this. Keith? I’m gonna pick you up now—uh, not that you’ll complain but, y’know, just so you know,” Lance mumbles to Keith though he’s sure Keith doesn’t even notice. Lance pushes his hand under the omega’s thighs and the other behind his back and gets up on his feet. It took an embarrassing amount of scrambling before he started power walking towards the exit, because Keith is like super ripped and Lance is admittedly not the strongest alpha out there, but he manages. He’s lucky the omega clings to his neck the way he does.

He rushes through the corridor outside the cafeteria when he feels the wet spot forming at Keith’s thighs, exactly where Lance’s hand is placed, and how the fuck does he keep ending up in these situations? Lance swears loudly and goes faster or else he won’t make it to the isolations room before his instincts to ravish the compliant omega takes over.

Said omega squirms a bit in his arms and moans into his jaw, nibbling and licking everywhere he can reach. Lance gulps determinedly and keeps his face angled away so Keith won’t reach too close to his lips or anything stupid like that. Keith let’s out a whine at the alpha’s lack of attention and fucking sucks down on his scent gland, making Lance almost stumble and make them both fall to the ground. He groans and takes a steadier grip on Keith, hoisting him up a bit in his arms.

“ _Fuck_ , wake up Keith, seriously! You need to wake up, buddy,” Lance says and feels his resolve slipping a bit. Panic slips into his scent and he can feel Keith shiver at the repellent scent before he blinks a bit dumbly and his eyes clear up. He groans loudly and presses his forehead into Lance’s neck, which does not help at _all_.

“Fuck you, Lance. I fucking _hate_ you—I’m not due for a heat until next month, you stupid, _wonderful_ alpha… I can’t fucking stand you—why do you smell so good?” Keith mumbles incoherently into his skin and Lance can’t decide if the talking is better or worse. “Take care of me,” he moans a bit louder. “You have to take care of me _alpha_ , this is all your fault—I can’t _believe_ you put me into heat again, you asshole.”

Lance mutters things back like ‘yep’ and ‘yeah’ and ‘sure’ and ‘absolutely’ at every insult (compliment?) Keith throws at him, because what else can he say? The omega’s is right. It’s all Lance’s fault, but he’s going to fucking fix it. He urges his feet to go faster and enters the infirmary in a dramatic manner—sweaty, heaving in breaths and with a violently trembling omega curled up in his arms. The dude behind the reception counter raises from his seat in surprise and immediately calls out for another medic to come rushing out to them. Lance grunts exhaustedly but feels relieved knowing that he doesn’t have the only responsibility for the omega anymore.

The automatic doors open again behind Lance and a gentle but loud voice carries through the room.

“Is it Keith Kogane?” the Omega counselor lady says hurriedly and walks around to get in front of Lance. He nods erratically though he’s not sure if he was asking him.

“Heh,” he laughs awkwardly and shrugs. “He kind of went into heat.”

“Lance?” The omega counselor lady stares at him incredulously, and if Lance had his hands free he would scratch his neck in embarrassment at being back here in the same situation as before. She steps closer to fuzz over Keith probably, but Lance couldn’t help an instinct to bring Keith closer and growl lowly in the base of his throat. The omega counselor backs off immediately and levels him with a serious glare. Lance flushes at his behavior.

“Sorry, uh, so it looks like you guys got this covered—maybe I should go,” Lance mumbles and starts moving towards a medic to take Keith from him, but the omega makes an alarming sound and clings to the alpha harder, his fist gripping tightly onto the neck of Lance’s shirt.

“ _No_! No, no, no, no, _alpha_ , no, you can’t leave me—what are you talking about? You need to take care of me, stay—please _stay_ ,” Keith begs and shoves his face into the underside of Lance’s jaw, the bitter distress pheromones prickling in the alphas nostrils like tiny needles. “You said you wanted to take care of me, so fucking _take care of me,_ you absolute bag of dicks.” Lance inhales sharply at the sensation of Keith’s lips moving against his skin and involuntarily tightens his grip around Keith.

He glances up at the medics and the omega counselor fleetly.

“So, uh, should I just leave my shirt here or…” Lance says and clears his throat.

“What? No!” Keith snaps. “You’re staying with me—Lance, listen to me. I want you to stay—no, I need you here. I need you so bad, want you so bad, please don’t leave me—alpha, don’t leave your omega,” Keith rambles desperately between sobs and Lance can fucking feel his heart beat out of his chest.

“Keith, honey. You need to let go of Lance now,” the omega counselor murmurs and threads her fingers through Keith’s hair, but Keith shies away from her touch. Another medic steps forward to help her pull the omega away from Lance, pulling off his shirt in the process since Keith refused to let go of his death grip. The omega keeps wailing and crying out for Lance—for his alpha—and Lance shuts his eyes until someone pokes him with a hospital gown to use as a temporary shirt.

“I think we will have to ask you to leave now, Lance, or this will just get harder for the both of you,” the omega counselor says gently and puts a hand on his shoulder. Then she clears her throat and smiles kindly at him. “Unless of course you feel that you need an isolation room as well?”

Lance wants to die. He wants someone to come and take him right this second and just fucking throw him out of a window or something. Instead of voicing this wish, he smiles back stiffly and ignores the very obvious bulge in his pants.

“No, no I’m fine—I’ll, uh, I’ll go,” he says, too loudly. The omega counselor gives him a concerned look.

“It’s awkward for you Lance, I can understand that, but know that it’s completely normal for an alpha to react this way to an omega in heat,” she says quickly, noticing Lance’s immediate need to get away. “I’m proud of you though,” she pushes on and tightens her grip on his shoulder for a second before dropping it and ordering the medics keeping track of Keith to follow her further into the infirmary.

“ _Alpha_ ,” Keith mewls and stares at Lance, probably wondering why his alpha isn’t coming with him, and Lance immediately turns around to get the fuck out of there. The last thing he hears before the doors swoosh closed behind him is Keith screaming for him yo come back.

Lance runs through the halls, desperate to get to his dorm before the hallways fills up with students. He hopes Hunk is smart enough to figure out that Lance needs some alone time in their dorm for a while. He’ll probably need to burn all his clothes and shower for at least an hour to get the smell of Keith’s slick off his fingers.    

Lance throws open his door and locks it immediately after he gets inside. His legs are trembling so badly they give up and Lance sinks down on the floor, half leaning against the locked door.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he says as some kind of final evaluation of the last hour. He feels completely drained, both physically and emotionally. This is the second fucking time in like a few months that Lance has been way too close to Keith when he’s in heat. If there was any before then there’s no doubt that Keith absolutely hates him now.

Lance grips the hospital gown in the place right over his heart—he can practically feel it breaking. There’s no question about whether or not Lance is in love with Keith. In hindsight, Lance is sure he was in love with Keith the moment they met as freshmen at that stupid information meeting. Unconsciously he kind of always hoped Keith would turn out to be an omega—and even if he wasn’t, Lance would probably still pine after him. He’ll probably never stop being in love with Keith, and if the rest of the year continues like this he’s fucked. He can’t handle it. Lance will just have to ignore and avoid the omega from now on, he can’t see any other solution.

He sighs and gets up from the floor, ready to get out of these clothes and into a warm nice shower. He stops quickly by the mirror and smiles a strained smile at himself.

He’ll manage, Lance thinks to himself, he always does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end!
> 
> Don't worry though, I'm working on a compatible fic but from Keith's perspective ;)


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